Innholdsfortegnelse for February 10, 2017 i The Hollywood Reporter

Hollywood Under Trump Hollywood was built by immigrants — mostly Jews whose families emigrated from eastern Europe — and long has thrived on the infusion of fresh talent and consumers from around the world. So the industry is struggling to grapple with the impact of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order temporarily banning immigration to the U.S. from seven mostly- Muslim countries — even as most entertainment moguls have remained silent on the issue. The ban, which impacts most immigrants and visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, came just as the TV industry’s pilot season was getting underway. The annual production crunch sees hundreds of foreign actors travel to Los Angeles and New York for meetings and casting sessions, often on expedited visas. Studios and…

Dog movies famously are a tough sell overseas. Pooch ownership is frowned upon or outlawed everywhere from China (the Communist Party views it as elitist) to the Middle East (the Koran forbids people from keeping dogs inside the home). And in some Asian countries, dog consumption is common. Still, Universal is hoping overseas ticket sales can boost A Dog’s Purpose, which opened Jan. 27 to a decent $18.2 million but likely was hurt by a leaked video showing a dog shoved into a water tank. As the Lasse Hallstrom-helmed film is unleashed in 20 territories, the initial results are promising. On Jan. 27, Dog’s Purpose opened in Latin America and overperformed everywhere but Brazil. The film earned $3.4 million in seven territories, outgrossing 2008’s Marley & Me in the same…

Go Pats! Super Bowl LI will see the New England Patriots vying for their fifth championship title and the Atlanta Falcons fighting to win their first at Houston’s NRG Stadium on Feb. 5. Hollywood seems to love a winner: Viacom’s Shari Redstone, a Patriots seasonticket holder since 1986, will head to Houston to cheer on her team, which is favored to win by three. “Great leaders, great passion and great energy — it’s all about the team!” she tells THR of the Pats’ winning formula. Fellow partisan and former Paramount vice chair Rob Moore adds: “They are willing to not follow the book. They are willing to take risks.” The Talk co-host Julie Chen’s husband, CBS chairman Leslie Moonves, is trying to persuade her to attend, but she’d rather watch…

23rd SAG Awards Los Angeles, Jan. 29 28th PGA Awards Beverly Hills, Jan. 28 67th ACE Eddie Awards Beverly Hills, Jan. 27 Party Crawler #NoMuslimBan at the SAG Awards The 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards likely won’t be remembered as back-patting business as usual. Many of the winners — among them Life Achievement Award honoree Lily Tomlin (3), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Denzel Washington, Emma Stone (2), Taraji P. Henson (1), Mahershala Ali, Sarah Paulson (14) and David Harbour — took to the Shrine Auditorium stage to denounce President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policy. On the flip side, the show also featured messages of unity. The evening’s big ensemble win went to Hidden Figures as Henson gave an impassioned speech touching on the awards’ political atmosphere: “When we come together as a…

Births Paul Telegdy, president of the alternative and reality group at NBC Entertainment, and his wife, actress and artist Lauren Telegdy, welcomed son Winston Henry James Telegdy on Jan. 6 at Providence St. John’s Medical Center in Santa Monica. Congrats Sharon Tal Yguado was named head of event series at Amazon Studios on Jan. 25. Vicky Colf was named chief technology officer at WB Entertainment on Jan. 24. Gina Balian was tapped to oversee the Fox Networks Group’s global programming initiative on Jan. 26. Skydance Media promoted Jesse Sisgold to president and COO on Jan. 26. MediaMonks appointed Kelly Kandle to virtual reality executive producer on Jan. 24. Patrick Ross Dempsey was named GM of The Culver Studios on Jan. 25. Brittainy Roberts was promoted to vp casting at Fox…

As hundreds of thousands of people swarmed through the streets of Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, and millions more took part in the Women’s March across the country, one culprit in the war against women got away scot-free: Hollywood. Well, almost. A solitary demonstrator was spotted hoisting a sign in downtown Los Angeles, urging “More Women Directors!” That may have drawn titters on Twitter, but her point was dead-on. Where were the behind-thescenes women in the Oscar noms this year? Whatever advances people of color made were not matched across gender lines. There wasn’t a single female director nominee, and only one woman got nominated for writing — Hidden Figures’ Allison Schroeder. And in the cinematography category, all the nominees were men, just as they have been every year since…

Last year, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh set the Berlin film market alight with hot star-studded projects Suburbicon and Logan Lucky (both now in production), but Berlin in 2017 looks decidedly chilly. International distributors have become more risk-averse, and political uncertainty —thank you, President Trump — is likely to make things worse. “It’s not a cyclical aberration, this is the new normal,” says Paul Hanson of Convert Media, whose Berlin slate includes Ophelia, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that stars Daisy Ridley and Naomi Watts. “The business is less frothy, people are becoming more judicious in what they buy, and everyone is feeling the ripple effect.” Adds Russell Levine of Route One Entertainment, producer of Sundance hit Landline, “The foreign sales market is very volatile.” Barring last-minute additions, art house…

It’s unlikely Donald Trump has much interest in any of the films making their world premiere in Berlin. But there’s a prominent line in one title from the Generation sidebar — an adaptation of an LGBT YA novel, no less — that may grab the attention of the new U.S. president. Trump’s White House bid was very much in its infancy when Trudie Styler began developing her directorial debut, Freak Show, based on James St. James’ award-winning book of the same name, about a cross-dressing teen from a liberal corner of Connecticut who is dropped into an ultra-conservative high school in red state America. Counting Drew Barrymore as an exec producer and Oscar-winning cinematographer Dante Spinotti as part of her creative team, Styler says Trump barely was on her radar…

AIRDATE Friday, Feb. 3 (Netflix) CAST Drew Barrymore, Timothy Olyphant, Liv Hewson, Skyler Gisondo, Ricardo Chavira, Richard T. Jones CREATOR Victor Fresco Boasting the star power of Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant, Netflix’s new series Santa Clarita Diet dips into — what else? — the zombie genre to explore, with increasingly entertaining if occasionally repetitive results, themes of suburban ennui and marital complacency. The show hails from Victor Fresco (ABC’s Better Off Ted), whose gift for treating the absurd as mundane is on full display. The plot revolves around Sheila (Barrymore) and Joel (Olyphant), long-married high school sweethearts and moderately successful realtors who are enjoying a comfortable if routine existence in the eponymous community north of Los Angeles. Sheila wishes she could be more impulsive; Joel wishes he could be…

Watch out,” jokes a woman who declines to give her name but says she lives in Bell Gardens, Calif. “I’m about to deface some private property.” She’s referring to the Trump National Golf Club sign — on an oceanfront bluff in sunny Palos Verdes, 25 miles south of L.A. — whose adjacent shrubbery a few minutes earlier was sprinkled with a shirtless jogger’s urine. Whipping out a deep berry lipstick, she strikes out the Trump name and scribbles “puto” as a friend snaps iPhone photos. “Yeah, he’s a pussy,” she says. “This isn’t a political statement; this is a human statement.” As demonstrations against President Trump’s policies rage in airports and at his properties across the country, a quirkier form of protest plays out in Palos Verdes. While most visitors…

Will the Real Will Ward Please Stand Up? (Oh, You’re Both Real) Hollywood, take note: There are two Will Wards. ROAR’s Will Ward, 46, is a founding partner of the management-production company where he reps the Hemsworths (Chris, Luke and Liam), while WME’s Will Ward, 37, is co-head of the agency’s endorsements group, handling brand deals for such clients as Charlize Theron and Ryan Reynolds. “We get so many of each other’s calls and emails,” says WME’s Ward, because industry offices have both numbers. “One time my phone rings and it’s [UTA agent] Louise Ward, his wife, saying, ‘I’m running late from work, can you pick up the kids?’ ” adds WME’s Ward, whose British accent tips off callers that they’ve got the wrong Will. ROAR’s Ward adds that at…

An up-and-down NFL season culminates Feb. 5 with Fox’s coverage of Super Bowl LI. The game is the largest U.S. television event, surpassing 100 million viewers every year since 2010. But this time, one of the last truly communal viewing experiences in a fragmented media landscape comes as the country is divided about the presidency of Donald Trump. Jordan Levin, the NFL’s chief content officer who oversees the halftime show, says he isn’t worried that headliner Lady Gaga, who campaigned for Hillary Clinton and protested at Trump Tower on election night, will create a Super Bowl controversy. “True artists understand that they have the power to not only make a lasting impression on their legacy but also to do something as inclusive as possible,” he says. Based at NFL Network’s…

In his new Oscar-nominated documentary, Life, Animated, director Roger Ross Williams, 43, faced a unique challenge. The film recounts the singular story of Owen Suskind, an autistic boy who learned to speak by mimicking the characters in Disney animated movies. Williams — an Oscar winner for the 2010 short doc Music for Prudence and a member of the Academy’s board of directors — had access to home footage shot by Owen’s father, journalist Ron Suskind, and he conducted new interviews with Owen, now a young man, as he ventured out into the world. But how would he dramatize the role that animated films played in Owen’s imagination? Williams’ solution was to employ animation itself, even though he’d never worked in the medium. With the help of Disney exec Sean Bailey,…

For less invasive procedures, right before awards season is when L.A. plastic surgeons’ and beauty pros’ appointment books are packed with talent. “If I were an accountant, this is tax season for me,” says nurse Jamie Sherrill. For Beverly Hills moms and other locals, “cosmetic maintenance is as periodic as therapy sessions,” says Christine Chiu, who runs the office of her husband, Beverly Hills surgeon Gabriel Chiu. JANUARY “Established TV actors have procedures done during traditional pilot season, January through April, which also preps them for filming and sweeps,” says Chiu. FEBRUARY For studio execs, winter break is the ideal time for any type of procedure as they can recover outside of the office. MARCH Actors wait until March for extensive procedures, when awards-season red carpets are over, and they…

Radio — The Label Bar Frankfurter Allee 23 Vienna’s cult Radio bar brings its unique blend of comfort and kitsch to Berlin. This combination bar, cafe and miniclub has its own fashion line as well as an in-house DJ and an electronic music label. The homemade cocktails — like the $7 Einhornwald (Unicorn Forest), a mix of gin, rose, OJ and elderberries — already are legendary. Pasticceria Mangiarte Danziger Strasse 23 The name says it all: Mangi and Arte: Eating and Art. This Italian confectionery is just the spot to indulge after a 12-hour slog through the film market. From the sweet — pasticcini, melt-in-your mouth cornetti and cannoli — to the heartier, but no less delicious, focaccia and panini, the pastries are a labor of love. Einsunternull Hannoversche Strasse…

In mid-2015, actor Ewan McGregor randomly bumped into director Danny Boyle in a London restaurant. Coincidentally, it was the day before Boyle was to head to Edinburgh on a recon mission that would decide the fate of the much discussed sequel to Trainspotting — which is getting the gala treatment in Berlin (at 10 p.m. on Feb. 10 at the Palast). It had been almost two decades since production wrapped on the original, a film that would come to define the ’90s era of “Cool Britannia” and catapult both McGregor and Boyle into stardom. Several earlier attempts to bring to life Irvine Welsh’s follow-up book, Porno, never made it past the script stage. So it was decided that if Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud were ever to return to…

Nine-time Emmy winner Tommy Schlamme, renowned for collaborations with Aaron Sorkin on Sports Night and The West Wing, has been making TV since his big break in 1986 — the ABC movie Can a Guy Say No? “If you got an Afterschool Special, you were on your way,” recalls Schlamme, 66. With two hours of Dustin Lance Black’s ABC miniseries When We Rise (premiering Feb. 27) and the John Singleton FX drama Snowfall later in 2017, the helmer, producer and DGA negotiator, who’ll receive his guild’s Robert B. Aldrich Award for service Feb. 3, spoke with THR about nurturing diverse talent — and why Trump’s White House probably is nothing like The West Wing’s President Bartlet’s. There’s a lot of dialogue about filling fewer directors’ chairs with white men. Do…

Ken Ralston — this year’s Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award honoree — boasts a résumé that includes some of the most influential films in the history of the VFX industry. At 63, he has five Academy Awards, including a special achievement Oscar for Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi and visual effects Oscars for his work on Forrest Gump, Death Becomes Her, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Cocoon. He’s an alum of Industrial Light + Magic, where his additional credits include the Back to the Future trilogy, and he now serves as senior VFX supervisor and creative head at Sony Pictures Imageworks, for whom he has contributed to films from The Polar Express to Alice in Wonderland. What was the biggest challenge you encountered on the…

It’s hard to read the tea leaves when the brew is swirling in the cup. Such is the current state of instability in Hollywood, leading to speculation among insiders about who will move where. With a caveat that there is a lot of informed guesswork going on, it’s time to handicap the game of mogul musical chairs. The person most interestingly situated might be former 20th Century Fox film studio chairman Jim Gianopulos. As THR reported Jan. 19, China’s Dalian Wanda Group has been courting him to run Legendary Entertainment in the wake of CEO Thomas Tull’s ouster, with a promise to build a full-service studio — eventually. The question is, does Gianopulos end up taking the Legendary job or does he hold out for other possible options, say at…

Says Girls producer Apatow: “HBO said, ‘If this is in the show, we could lose our license.’ We were like, ‘Oh my God, we’ve actually found the line at HBO.’ ” From left: Andrew Rannells, Adam Driver, Lena Dunham, Alex Karpovsky, Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet and Jemima Kirke were photographed on July 23, 2016, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Styling by Shannon Adducci & Michael Fisher On Rannells: David Hart suit, The Kooples shirt, Paul Smith tie, Tie Bar pocket square, Christian Louboutin shoes. On Driver: Ermenegildo Zegna suit, Allen Edmonds shoes. On Dunham: LPA dress, Aquazzura shoes, Graziela Gems and Dana Rebecca Designs rings, Anita Ko and Mizuki earrings. On Karpovsky: Robert James suit, Ermenegildo Zegna shoes. On Williams: Valentino dress, Paul Andrew shoes, Graziela Gems necklace, bracelet and earrings. On…

ORIGINAL HELL OR HIGH WATER Taylor Sheridan JENNY ANN So you go get a warrant and come after the money I’ll be using to keep a roof over my daughter’s head. “The scene with Katy Mixon and Jeff Bridges in the diner, where the authorities want to confiscate a tip Katy got, became so much more than I ever pictured it being. That’s largely because of the emotion Katy brought to the dynamic between her and Jeff. I saw her as an angrier character, more defiant. She brought it to another level, so it felt more like a mother protecting something for her kids. She added a layer of depth to the moment I hadn’t expected. I admit, I’d be alarmed if a scene unfolded exactly as I expected it…

Awards & Festivals The inspirational documentary set to kick off the 32nd annual Santa Barbara Film Festival on Feb. 1 showcases a shocking predicament representing an extreme of human suffering: The world premiere feature, Charged, follows outdoorsman/chef Eduardo Garcia, who endured a near-fatal jolt of electricity after touching a dead bear that had fallen across a live power line in the hills of Montana. The TV personality had his hand amputated, suffered burn trauma and lost several ribs to his recovery process — only later to be diagnosed with testicular cancer and put through chemotherapy. But throughout his ordeal, viewers see Garcia gain a deeper appreciation for life and make peace with his troubled past. With its themes of uplift and overcoming adversity, the doc sets the festival’s tone, notes…

Edward Lachman, this year’s recipient of the American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award, doesn’t view his role as a cinematographer as just being a passive recorder. “The camera is a participant with the actor, not only creating the mood but also responding,” he says. “We should be some kind of mirror for the actors.” The cinematography legend has put his own looking glass up to actors in more than 90 films, including Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich and Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion. But it’s for two of his movies with Todd Haynes — Carol and Far From Heaven — that he has earned Oscar nominations. “Todd doesn’t reference images just as an imitation, he references them as metaphors for the story,” Lachman says of the director, who also…

Animator Dale Baer, 66, who will receive a Winsor McCay Award for career achievement (along with indie legend Caroline Leaf and anime pioneer Mamoru Oshii) at the 44th annual Annie Awards, has spent decades at the Walt Disney Studios, working on everything from The Lion King to Zootopia and Moana. He first came to the studio in 1971 for its training program and learned from some of the Nine Old Men, Disney’s fabled group of veteran animators. “Robin Hood was my first film in the training program,” he says. “It was so wonderful walking into this place and working with heroes of mine. Eric Larson and John Lounsbery were the most patient, helpful people I ever met. I gravitated to John because he liked to do very broad, comical animation.…

Perhaps Donald Trump’s most creative innovation as a United States Football League team owner was having Andy Warhol choose its cheerleaders. In 1983, the future president, then 37, paid $9 million for the New Jersey Generals — part of a startup league seeking to become a springtime alternative to the NFL. “The only reason Donald bought a USFL team is he wanted an NFL team and was not invited into their exclusive club,” says Mandalay Sports Media co-chairman Mike Tollin, who made a documentary on the USFL. To generate publicity, Trump held a cheerleader competition in Manhattan’s Trump Tower basement with a jury that included impressionistic painter LeRoy Neiman, opera singer Beverly Sills and Warhol, who watched dozens of young women strut to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” Warhol had met…